How To Know If You Should Bulk Or Cut?
Should you bulk? Or should you cut? That is the question.
To answer this question, there is a very clear cut line that you should be aware of when it comes to bulking, and knowing this will help you determined whether you should bulk or you should cut.
If you are at or under 10% body fat (and you are able to see your defined abs) then you are in a good position to start an efficient and productive bulk.
To be completely honest with you, when it comes to bulking, the leaner you are when you start, the better.
If you are higher than 12% body fat then you should cut back down into the single digit body fat % levels before bulking.
To sum all of this up for you:
If You Have 10% Or Less Body Fat Then You Should Bulk
If You Have Over 12% Body Fat Then You Should Cut
Simple, right?
Why Is Your Body Fat % So Important For Bulking Or Cutting?
The reason why you should follow these rules is to constantly keep your body primed for maximum muscle growth potential.
Basically, once you hit a certain body fat percentage (around 12% and higher), your body enters an environmental state that is no longer as effective for muscle growth.
This is because when you bulk up and your body fat level increases, your insulin sensitivity decreases.
When this happens your body actually starts to favor fat storage more and more.
As Your Body Fat % Increases, You Begin To Gain Fat Faster And Grow Muscle Slower.
The effect that insulin has on your body should not be underestimated.
Insulin is what is responsible for shuttling nutrients to your muscles for recovery and growth.
Meaning that your insulin levels have a direct and major impact on how both your muscle cells and fat cells utilize amino acids and glucose.
The more body fat that you have on your body, the higher your natural levels of insulin will be.
These naturally high insulin levels have a severe desensitizing effect on your muscle cells ability to grow because it reduces the amount of nutrients that your muscles receive.
It is a slippery slope once you start getting desensitized to insulin, and once you get past a certain body fat percentage (around 12%), you’re accelerating the fat storage process AND slowing the muscle growth process.
But that's not all…
Letting your fat storage get out of control, by bulking when you should cut, can even lead to the creation of new fat cells that make it even harder to diet down once your bulking cycle ends.
You need a calorie surplus to build muscle, there is no denying that fact, and gaining weight with a complete absence of some extra body fat is impossible.
The key is to minimize this extra body fat that will accumulate during your bulk phases.
It is much easier to diet down from 12% body fat to single digits than it is from 20% body fat.
Here is the harsh truth…
If you begin a bulk with a high body fat percentage, you are just going to dig yourself into a much deeper hole by bulking off of that fat foundation.
Think of it this way, if you are bulking and for every 5 pounds you gain only 1 of them is muscle, does it make logical sense to continue bulking?
You will probably just lose that muscle when you have to diet down to get rid of that 4 pounds of fat.
Therefore it would be much more beneficial for you to cut down to a lower body fat % first then bulk, instead of beginning a bulk on a high fat % base.
Staying within striking distance of being “shredded” year round is ideal as it keeps your insulin sensitivity primed, and nutrient absorption and partitioning will always be functioning at a very high level.
By Staying At A Lower Body Fat % You Maximize Your Muscle Growth Potential.
You don’t need to be a Greek God chiseled statue year round, that would be unhealthy and very difficult.
But if you notice that your abs have literally almost disappeared entirely, you are probably passing the 12% barrier and need to do a mini-cut back down into the single digit body fat % level.
Once your body fat % starts getting too high and you begin losing insulin sensitivity you will not only start putting on fat easier than muscle, but you will notice your pumps in the gym are much less than they were before.
Not being able to get a good pump in a calorie surplus is a surefire way to tell you that your body isn’t efficiently using the nutrients that you are consuming any more.
Which also probably means that your insulin sensitivity is starting to go down the toilet…
If you notice these things happening and think that maybe it's time to undertake another cutting phase to get your body primed for muscle growth, there's a great little tool to help you get things rolling.
RED BURNER
Red Burner Helps To Boost Your Metabolism Sky High!
Red Burner contains the powerful thyroid support compound T2, which is scientifically proven to help naturally raise your metabolism.
Helping you get much leaner, much faster!
Red Burner will ultimately help put you back in a favorable position to resume a productive bulking phase in a much more timely manner.
It accomplishes this by melting fat off of you at an expedited level that would otherwise be impossible under normal circumstances.
Or if you just want to get shredded and stay shredded, Red Burner will certainly help with that as well.
